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Themes in the Dark Fluid series
Self-Preservation vs Integrity The stakes are not just life and death, but honor, virtue, and integrity. Excessive pride is proved to be dangerous, and humility always prevails. It is proven time and time again that by protecting others you save yourself and that if you only think of yourself, you'll only destroy yourself. This idea comes back repeatedly throughout the story as characters find themselves harmed because of their own selfish actions. The Spiritualists consider this a sacred tenant - by protecting others, they are making the world a safer and better place, which may help protect them later on. If people behave selfishly when the stakes are high enough, everyone will die, but the sacrifice of a few for the many provides an opportunity to overcome struggle and protect their beliefs and their people. Relative Morality and Hypocrisy All factions and characters are morally dubious, and though everyone truly believes they are in the moral right, they all embellish the truth to make themselves feel stronger or better than they are. All sides have a strong, justifiable reason for fighting, and contain a mixture of people of all kinds, from admirable, upstanding individuals to vicious, self-interested monsters, though even the worst of them experience moments of moral clarity and the best sometimes falter in their morality. Each individual's differing sense of morality is based on their own experiences in life and their perspectives reflect their own dreams and fears rather than objective truth. The characters must try to understand the views of others in the context of their personal experiences, and almost all of them demonstrate some degree of hypocrisy, which is an inevitable part of the human condition. Although Rhys supports the social movements of the past, he shows little regard for his fellow man over the course of the story, though he consistently points out the hypocrisy of others around him. Tedo is even worse, actively creating conflict. Sunny frequently notes when others say misinformed and vindictive things about his culture, but assumes that those he meets of other cultures are violent and ignorant. Many societies are moralistic to a fault, and yet have no problem inflicting suffering on people abroad and marginalized populations at home. Nostalgia vs New Beginnings The world is stuck and everyone knows it. The Regime represents those who cling to the past, trying to recover old world values that hold merit but are ultimately impractical in the modern age. The Confederation is an example of a society that attempts to reconcile many ideologies - some of them in direct opposition to one another - and deal with the conflicts that arise when these ideologies clash. New Humanity shows what happens when a culture rejects the values that once defined it and struggles to reshape itself in a new image. This conflict between the past and the present moment can be seen in most of the characters as well. Each character is haunted somehow by the past, and they must all choose between trying to regain what has been lost and letting go to find a fresh start. Rhys often finds himself reminiscing about the idealism and creativity of the Civil Rights Movement, when he and his peers were eager to explore new ideas and ways of living. He believes that the decline of this movement was ultimately the fault of its creators; they all became too complacent and failed to respond to obstacles like infighting and the growth of violent and hateful tactics in their ranks, becoming corrupted by the very values they were fighting against. He is deeply ambivalent about what will replace these values in the future and seems unaware that his cynicism and pursuit of instant gratification is an attempt to fill this void. Faith and Fate The characters all have very different perspectives on faith and each one has their beliefs challenged throughout the narrative. Sunny is initially fanatically dedicated to his faith but his experiences throughout his character arc cause him to begin to lose his faith in humanity and its inherent goodness, as well as his belief in his own moral and spiritual superiority. Rhys expresses a cynical, nihilistic worldview and has already long dismissed mankind's capacity to do good and be trustworthy, though this belief is challenged numerous times throughout his narrative. Orion is essentially the soul caught in the midst between the faithful and faithless perspectives, accepting his own ignorance though not without frustration. All characters eventually come to face challengers that force them to reconsider their notions of nature, faith, and fate. Sunny and Rhys have an extended philosophical debate over the nature of the universe. While Sunny attributes everything to divine intervention, Rhys believes that it is all random and everything is left to chance. Their disagreement represents a larger debate about fate versus free will: whether mankind is subject to higher forces, or whether life's events unfold spontaneously and according to no particular plan. Significantly, Rhys, who does not believe in fate, survives the narrative, whereas Sunny, who lives by his belief in fate, dies under extremely unlucky circumstances that could be considered either an act of divine intervention, or just plain bad luck. Violence as a Universal Constant Violence pervades the story and is an everyday yet unpredictable phenomenon, often reflecting the fundamentally unforeseeable and surprising nature of life itself. Some characters take a casual and indifferent approach to this violence while others either revel in it or are inherently opposed to it, though they all partake in it to some degree. Tedo and Rhys frequently discuss the literal and figurative brutality of society, but over the course of the narrative they both indulge in a great deal of violent behavior. Overall, the story depicts a world in which institutional violence has ‘trickled down’ to the minds and daily lives of ordinary, well-meaning people. Sexual Repression and Coercion Throughout the story, rape and sexual coercion are seen in most factions and cultures, to differing degrees. For some, it is presented as a key aspect of society's characteristics - a consequence of its values, or lack of values. Ophelia is characterized by her sexual repression, the sexual violence exhibited towards her, and the shame stemming from the first two issues. Her father punishes her repeatedly over the issue of her potential and actual loss of virginity as he cares solely about keeping her ‘pure’ or ‘undamaged.’ As a result of this and her repeated objectification and sexualization by those around her (women included), she turns to promiscuity and recklessness, though she still retains the beliefs and expectations her family taught her of how men and women "should" act. This conflict manifests in Ophelia as self-loathing, hypocrisy, and the degradation of many of her relationships. Individuality and Personal Accountability The main characters all represent different aspects of the ideas of individuality, freedom of thought, and personal accountability. The narrative focuses intensely on personal growth and development, and we see many times the idea that an individual can redeem through their actions. Each character has their own idea of what they should be and what it really means to be honorable. The idea that the characters should think for themselves, make their own moral judgments, and act on these rather than the will of a superior or deity, is an important idea with the threat of an oppressive, militarized regime lingering on the horizon. Many characters are left without a leader or higher purpose and have to determine their own sense of what is right and wrong in the world rather than follow the instructions of another. They are forced to look within themselves for guidance rather than deferring to societal expectations, as they may have done in the past, or as other characters around them may tend to do. However, the idea that their moral determinations should be considered absolute is challenged by their own hypocrisy and judgments of others. Identity and Expectations A constant theme throughout the narrative is how class or group identity determines what is expected of individuals. Some characters form their identity in opposition to social and cultural expectations by determining that their own internal morality should supersede such expectations, but even still their identity remains a product of the expectations projected on them. Nairi forms her identity in opposition to what was expected of her from birth. Growing up an outcast results in her spending much of her life searching for some identity in the world, wanting desperately to be accepted into an order or group that is in alignment with her personal values. To this end, the aspect of identity on which she becomes fixated is that of her father; however, she only truly becomes accepted and gains the identity and acceptance she craves when she learns that her self-image should be based on her actions over social rules, and that everything she has experienced has become a part of her, combining to form her true identity. We see this same theme emerge among other characters, particularly in Ophelia’s story line. Her father takes away her ability to express her identity as she sees it, forcing her to disguise herself because of his expectations of outsiders. In the interactions between her and her father, we see that he expects her to remain a virgin until she is wed, and that he expects her to marry only someone that he approves of and to conform to the ideal of a "good wife." She seems to disagree with this identity that her father has chosen for her, and forms her image of herself in opposition to it, turning to promiscuity. Interestingly, her expectations of how others should act remain heavily affected by her father and culture. This failure to understand the true nature of those in her life, and instead seeing only their socially-determined identities may provide an explanation for why many of her relationships fail, although shame also plays a major role.